Needed Skills in REI

[Jorge Ortega]

Hello, I'm currently undecided as to continue school or just start investing? I had a deal fall through after my work hours unexpectedly reduced. Part of me wants to go back to school full time and finish my degree in Business admin in Real Estate to become a broker. Another part of me wants to find another job that will give me a full time positon that way I can buy my own property and get started. But the real question is, what college class and other skills are necessary to be a real estate investor?

[James Vermillion]

The best way to enhance your people skills is to exercise them, so you need to find ways to be involved. Most schools have clubs for most any interest (service clubs, sports clubs, political clubs, business clubs, etc). Any of those would require you to interact with other people you might not otherwise and just by interacting you can learn a lot.

As for analysis, even if you cannot invest in properties at the moment, nothing keeps you from practicing your analysis skills (just like people simulate trading stocks to learn). You can research properties to figure out which properties would provide the best returns, teaching yourself the important terms and methods along the way.

Finally, as for the construction skills, it could help but it is not needed at all. I rehab houses and I know very little about construction, I leave that part up to the contractors.